Leadership and Social Power: HR Point of View

Bangalore: The function of HRs incorporates not only to see the overall well being of employees in the organization but also to nurture their talents. Its an HR's duty to help build the leadership qualities in promising workers. But they often overlook that, "Understanding social dynamics is an important aspect of leadership." It is frequently seen that most influential employees are those who knows how to behave according to the company's social structure.

According to Jay Galbraith, "An organization must be able to reconfigure itself by forming teams and networks across organizational departments. As organizations continue to globalize, this ability to form partnerships becomes more and more complex. The long-term human resources role is to build social capital by creating richly connected interpersonal networks across the organization." Organizations with strong interpersonal networks have a competitive advantage over others. It's the HRs duty to ensure that those networks remain strong.

As Millennia's continue to penetrate the workplace, the role of social networks has become more crucial. Accenture report 2000 says around 30% workers openly agreed to be online. For 2012 the numbers are supposed to be higher. The new generation workers are unable to comprehend their work life without social networks: real or virtual. So the question arises, "How the HRs should react in such a situation?"
The response should be embracing this instead of despising it. The interpersonal networks constitute organization structure which is far more powerful than the formal one. Although the technology is just a mean to connect instead of an actual connection, but still holds a very high power. The HRs need to know how to mend these trends for organizational benefit.

By acting as a mentor for the organization's interpersonal networks an HR could not only prepare the future leaders of the organization but will also increase the overall well being of the company.